July 16, 2015  Back in 1930, it was an easy answer -- Pluto was a planet because we couldn't see anything else brighter at a similar distance away from us, says a cosmologist. Then, in the ... read more

Mar. 26, 2014  The Solar System has a new most-distant member, bringing its outer frontier into focus. New work reports the discovery of a distant dwarf planet, called 2012 VP113, which was ... read more

July 8, 2013  Planets and asteroids, red giants and brown dwarfs – there are all kinds of objects in our Universe. Debris disks are among them. These are belts consisting of countless dust particles and ... read more

Apr. 9, 2013  The European Space Agency's Herschel space observatory has provided the first images of a dust belt -- produced by colliding comets or asteroids -- orbiting a subgiant star ... read more

Nov. 21, 2012  Dwarf planet Makemake is about two thirds of the size of Pluto, and travels around the Sun in a distant path that lies beyond that of Pluto but closer to the Sun than Eris, the most massive known ... read more

July 11, 2012  A team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is reporting the discovery of another moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto. The moon is estimated to be irregular in shape and 6 to ... read more

Nov. 3, 2011  In the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, astronomers have hunted for radio signals and ultra-short laser pulses. Astronomers suggest a new technique for finding aliens: Look for their city ... read more

Oct. 26, 2011  Astronomers have measured the diameter of the dwarf planet Eris by catching it as it passed in front of a faint star. This was seen by telescopes in Chile, including the TRAPPIST telescope at the ... read more

Oct. 19, 2011  NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected signs of icy bodies raining down in an alien solar system. The downpour resembles our own solar system several billion years ago during a period known ... read more

Sep. 29, 2011  Searching for extra-solar planets -- which are planets outside of our solar system -- is very popular these days. About 700 planets are known at the moment, a number that is continuously rising due ... read more

Sep. 12, 2011  A University of Toronto-led team of astronomers has observed extreme brightness changes on a nearby brown dwarf that may indicate a storm grander than any seen yet on a planet. Because old brown ... read more

Aug. 22, 2011  Astronomers have discovered that the dwarf planet 2007 OR10 -- nicknamed Snow White -- is an icy world, with about half its surface covered in water ice that once flowed from ancient, slush-spewing ... read more

May 12, 2011  The fifth dwarf planet of the solar system, Haumea, and at least one of its two satellites, are covered in crystalline water-ice due to the tidal forces between them and the heat of radiogenic ... read more

Jan. 13, 2011  In the outer reaches of our solar system lies a mysterious region far more remote and difficult to explore than the Australian outback. It remains the only part of our solar system not visited by ... read more

Oct. 6, 2010  New research is challenging popular theory about how part of our solar system formed. Contrary to popular belief, new evidence suggests the planet Neptune can't have knocked a collection of ... read more

Sep. 18, 2008  The International Astronomical Union has announced that the object previously known as 2003 EL61 is to be classified as the fifth dwarf planet in the Solar System and named Haumea. This now means ... read more

June 11, 2008  The International Astronomical Union has decided on the term plutoid as a name for dwarf planets like Pluto at a meeting of its Executive Committee in Oslo. Almost two years after the IAU General ... read more

June 17, 2007  Aptly named after the Greek goddess of conflict, the icy dwarf planet, Eris, has rattled the general model of our solar system. The object was discovered by astronomer Mike Brown of Caltech in the ... read more

May 11, 2007  Science fiction may soon become science fact. Astronomers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have recently concluded that the upcoming planet-finding mission, SIM PlanetQuest, would be able to ... read more

Sep. 14, 2006  The International Astronomical Union has announced that the dwarf planet known as Xena since its 2005 discovery has been named Eris, after the Greek goddess of discord. Eris's moon will be known ... read more